LAHORE / KARACHI: Police on Friday raided the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s central Punjab off­ice on Jail Road and pic­ked up the party’s media coordinator, office boy and a security guard alleged­ly for submitting an application against the police.

PTI’s central Punjab additional general secretary Sardar Azeemullah Khan had filed an application with the SP Civil Lines complaining about the May 10 police raid at the party office during which they ransacked the furniture and fixtures and took away several articles.

Ad­­v­ocate Azeemullah told Dawn he had filed the application with the SP office at arou­­nd 1.30pm and within an hour a raiding party came to the PTI office.

“After filing the application, we went to offer Fri­day prayers. Police raided the office at 2.20pm,” he said.

Party sacks eight MPAs in Sindh for backing MQM-P during election for opposition leader

He said police went into all rooms in the building and took along media coordinator Nav­e­­ed Ansari, office boy Riz­wan and an elderly guard. According to initial information, he added, the PTI staff was detained at the Racecourse police station.

Mr Naveed was also picked up under Section 3 of the MPO on May 10 and was released only after a court of law granted bail.

“As we approached the SP concerned, he told us that the raid was carried out upon the instructions of high-ups,” he said.

In a related development, police also raided the house of PTI UC-234 Chairman Jamil Saleem, but he was not home.

Expulsions in Sindh

Separately, the PTI leadership expelled from the party its eight members of the Sindh Assembly for supporting a move by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) to bring its Leader of the Opposition in the house replacing PTI’s Haleem Adil Sheikh.

It may be recalled that these MPAs had already quit the party in the wake of May 9 riots.

In a statement, Mr Shei­­kh said that all the eight MPAs, who supported the MQM-P’s move to install its member Rana Ansar as opposition leader, were served show-cause notices to clear their position.

“But none of them came up with a satisfactory response and all of them failed to convince the party leadership for their non-democratic and anti-party role,” said Mr Sheikh, who is also president of the party’s Sindh chapter.

“After consultation, the PTI leadership has decided to expel all these eight MPAs from the party with clear directives to all cadres of the organisation to sever all contacts from them. The expelled members have also been warned against using the PTI name or platform for their future political endeavours,” he said.

The MPAs expelled by the PTI are Bilal Ahmed aka Bilal Ghaffar, Karim Bakhsh Gabol, Moham­mad Ali Aziz, Umar Am­­mari, Rabia Azfar Nizami, Sachanand Lakhwani Sa­­chal, Syed Imran Ali Shah and Sanjay Gangwani.

When contacted, one of the MPAs said he and all those sacked had already quit the party.

“I personally supported the MQM-P only to keep the opposition active [in the Sindh Assembly],” said Mr Ghaffar, who had also served as president of the party’s Karachi chapter and parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly.

“What option did we have? The party [PTI] has almost disintegrated after May 9. There was no one in contact. No one was there to suggest anything. And what happened on May 9, I finally decided to quit the party and announced my decision on May 23,” he said.

Published in Dawn, Aug 5th, 2023